Tuesday, May 31, 2016

After 13 days of talks at the U.S.
Department of Labor, the six-week old strike by labor unions against the
mostly landline and Internet side of Verizon appeared to have reached a
tentative agreement Friday afternoon. U.S.
Labor Secretary Thomas Perez announced that Verizon and the unions have
reached an “agreement in principle” on a four-year contract. He said he
expects Verizon’s (NYSE: VZ) striking workers to be “back on the job next week,” CNN reported.
One twist on the possible deal is that it opens the door to Verizon’s
wireless retail store entering into a union contract. Both the company and the unions confirmed a deal had been struck but specific details were not released.However, the Communications Workers of
America said Verizon has agreed to add “good union jobs” on the East
Coast as part of the agreement, CNN
said. The CWA also said the agreement will improve the living standards
of working families, and paves the way for the first contract for
wireless retail store workers. Continue Reading

Friday, May 27, 2016

The agency slapped the Chinese
manufacturer with a heavy fine — $34,912,500 – on Wednesday “for
marketing 285 models of signal jamming devices to U.S. consumers via its
Aiswa.com website,” wrote the Enforcement Bureau’s Marlene H. Dortch in
a four-page Forfeiture Order on Wednesday.

“These devices, which were advertised
for sale to U.S. consumers, were designed to disrupt a variety of
communications systems, including all major cellphone networks, WiFi
systems, and even Global Positioning System (GPS) channels,” Dortch
wrote. “Some of the more dangerous devices were advertised as having the
capacity to jam communications for a distance of over one-half mile. C.T.S.
Technology in fact sold several of these high-powered jamming devices
to undercover FCC personnel, who had posed as consumers, and shipped the
equipment to the United States.” Continue Reading

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Some 3,000 people working in the
fast-growing wireless industry converged in Dallas yesterday to attend
the Wireless Infrastructure Show hosted by the PCIA—The Wireless
Infrastructure Association. Most never knew or could not remember that
PCIA stood for the Personal Communications Infrastructure Association.
But, they all knew wireless. So, meet the new name, Wireless Infrastructure Association, or WIA.“For
the past 20 years, we’ve used “The Wireless Infrastructure Association”
as a moniker to more clearly describe our membership and advocacy
efforts. We wanted a name that was not only more descriptive of what we
do, but also simpler and more direct,”President/CEO Jonathan Adelstein
said in a statement after announcing the name change to a breakfast
panel.Continue Reading

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

The business of lobbying certainly got its start long before the word
“lobbyist” was coined in Washington’s Willard Hotel from cantankerous
old men waiting around the historic, posh hotel’s lobby, waiting to jump
on a politician returning from Capitol Hill to buy him a drink and bend
his ear on the latest issue of importance. But, the practice today is
better regulated—lobbyists are now registered—but the importance of the
task is still the measure of how business gets done in Washington and
any little town in the country. It is the business operator’s way of
getting the power brokers and decision makers’ attention and “educating”
them to the real world.

More than two dozen attendees to PCIA’s Wireless Infrastructure Show
in Dallas chose to forego happy hour and instead “listen and learn” and
“learn from the best” in how to take their messages to policy makers in
their hometowns, governments and industries.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Appearing at the annual
MoffettNathanson Media and Communications Summit in New York last week,
Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said the strike-plagued communications company
is intends to continue building out its fiber, small cell and DAS
networks in America’s major cities.
Shammo said he expects Verizon to budget $17.2 billion to $17.7 billion
per year in capital expenditures going forward for both wireline and
wireless spending.“When you think about the wireless network, the fiber network, that’s really where our concentration is right now,” RCRWireless’s Martha DeGrasse quoted Shammo telling the investors’ conference. “We
continue to densify that LTE network, continue to spend capital at a
pretty consistent rate, actually increasing year-over-year, and we’re
doing that for the densification of LTE but also in preparation for 5G.”

Thursday, May 19, 2016

John Allen Seay, Jr. died May 14, when
the crop-dusting plane he was flying near West, TX crashed after it hit
a guy wire on a cell tower. He died Saturday afternoon after being
ejected from the aircraft. Waco’s KWTX-TV website showed a seared
aircraft in pieces in an open field.

The station reported the 75-year-old
pilot was a Grammy-nominated musician who had a long career as a singer
and songwriter. He performed under the name Johnny Sea and began his
entertainment career when he was 17. Continue Reading

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

The FCC accepted 99 applications that it said
met the requirements of the auction to participate. View the
participants click here.

The FCC determined that five applications were incomplete and not
acceptable for the auction. There were submitted by KURIAN, THOMAS K.,
Laboral Data Systems, Liberty Spectrum Inc., Wendl, Lisa, and Wire, G-

Monday, May 16, 2016

It’s the third time since 2004, when
TowerCo was launched, that Richard Byrne and his team of more than two
dozen in Cary, NC have built up an impressive collection of tower assets
and found a buyer for them. He told Inside Towers “I am extremely fortunate to have wonderful investors (Tailwind
Capital Partners and Soros Fund Management) and great people working
with me.” With a chuckle, Byrne added, “ I am very, very lucky.”Grain Infrastructure II, L.P, of
Sarasota, FL paid $244 million for the 253 tower spread “all over the
U.S.,” Byrne said. The deal settled on May 11. Byrne said TowerCo
decided to part with its third portfolio of towers last summer and began
marketing it in the fall. “We are pleased with the outcome of this
transaction and look forward to the continued growth of TowerCo IV which
is off to a very good start.” Continue Reading

Thursday, May 12, 2016

While Atlas Tower has built about 90
towers in the U.S. over the past seven years, it also was a busy player
in the aggressive push to improve voice and data coverage throughout
South Africa. While doing so, it has become a predominant owner of new
tower infrastructure in the country. Founder and CEO Nate Foster,
speaking from his office in Paarl, South Africa, told Inside Towers yesterday the company on Friday (May 6) completed its 100th tower. The latest structure is in Soweto, a township in the bustling city of Johannesburg.“South Africa represents a steep
departure from our careful and calculated U.S. business model,” said
Foster. “We carefully assessed foreign opportunities and came to the
conclusion that although South Africa is a complicated market that lacks
traditional clarity, it provides us the kind of regulatory environment
that we believe drives value.” Continue Reading

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Shareholders of Waynesboro, VA-based
nTelos Holding Corp. spent the weekend celebrating the sale of the
Sprint-affiliated wireless operator. Shenandoah Telecommunications
Company of Edinburg, VA paid $9.25 a share for the company, gaining
about 300,00 new in portions of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, North
Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, more than doubling the
Shentel wireless customer base. The deal closed Friday.Shentel said the added operations
further strengthen and expand its “solid partnership with Sprint.”
Shentel intends to accelerate its intensive integration activities in
order to merge the two organizations. nTelos was the nation’s
eighth-largest service provider. It’s nTelos-branded retail stores will
become Shentel-operated Sprint stores, FierceWireless reported.

Monday, May 9, 2016

Telecom operators last week unveiled plans to hire tens of thousands of veterans as part of the White House’s Joining Forces initiative.
The initiative, launched in 2011, by First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill
Biden, wife of vice president Joe Biden, aims to hire 100,000 veterans
and military spouses by the year 2021.“On land and in the air, under the
sea and out in space, America has the most technologically advanced
armed forces in history,” wrote the pair in an op-ed that appeared in
the Wall Street Journal.Continue Reading

Friday, May 6, 2016

The carrier intends to lop off as much
$1.7 billion in network equipment and other capital goods in fiscal
year 2016. Sprint invested $4.7 billion in the 2015 fiscal year and $5.4
billion in 2014, according to RCRWireless.Sprint delivered the news earlier this
week when it announced its quarterly financial results with a focus on
cost reductions in the coming months and quarters.
In its outlook, Sprint management said it expected to see a $2 billion
savings from handset lease restructuring and pick up a 40 percent
reduction in its capex budget. The strategy got a lukewarm response by some on Wall Street.Continue Reading

Thursday, May 5, 2016

The Alaskan operation said during its
financial results conference call two months ago it was shopping its
tower assets and it looks like a buyer from Florida has answered the
bell. Vertical Bridge said late Wednesday it will scoop up 275 sites
from General Communications, Inc. (GCI), including 200 towers and 70
rooftop locations, operated by Alaska Wireless Network. Vertical Bridge
will also provide build to suit services to the network for the next
five years in the sale-leaseback deal valued at $91 million. When
the transaction closes, Vertical Bridge will be the largest tower owner
in the state of Alaska with approximately 300 wireless/broadcast sites. “Vertical Bridge is excited to be
chosen as a long term partner with AWN,” said Alex Gellman, Vertical
Bridge’s CEO and co-founder. “These are unique, high quality, fiber
ready towers built in very good locations. The tower portfolio provides
full coverage of the major population centers and the vast connecting
corridors in this great state.” Continue Reading

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

A
federal judge in West Virginia U.S. District Court has granted a motion
to consolidate six lawsuits involving a tower collapse that killed two
tower workers and a firefighter called to the scene, and injured two
others. Judge Irene M. Keeley agreed to combine five suits against SBA
Communications and various entities. A sixth lawsuit filed by SBA
Telecommunications LLC, as successor interest to SBA Telecommunications
Inc. and SBA Towers LLC, was against S&S Communications Specialists
Inc. and FDH Engineering Inc., according to the legal publication, West Virginia Record. Keely
signed the order to consolidate April 11, and last Friday approved a
motion filed on behalf of the dead and injured to extend the time to
respond to SBA, an attorney with the case told Inside Towers yesterday (May 3). Continue Reading

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

It’s
easy to overlook the tough, blue-collar work that makes the convenience
of a Smartphone possible. Every phone call, text message, Facebook post
and tweet is made possible by the men and women who make a living by
working on towers.

Decades ago, the tower climber
occupation was known for its dangerous working conditions, as safety
regulations and practices had not yet been developed for the burgeoning
industry.Many
veteran climbers share stories of job sites in the old days, and they
will tell you just how far the industry has evolved in climber safety. Continue Reading

Monday, May 2, 2016

American Tower Corporation (NYSE: AMT)
this morning reported its total first quarter revenue increased 19.4
percent to $1.29 billion during the first quarter that ended March 31,
2016. The global giant said its U.S.
revenue grew 19 percent to $852 million while International revenue was
up 21 percent to $416 million. The company saw its business in Latin
America grow 5.7 percent, Europe, Middle East and Africa increase 71
percent respectively, and Asia business increased 11 percent. Its small
services segment grew 24% to $21 million.“The global proliferation of
Smartphones is driving significant growth in subscriber demand for
higher bandwidth applications,” said American Tower’s CEO Jim Taiclet.
“As a result, during the first quarter, we continued to experience solid
leasing demand across our served markets as mobile operators invest in
their networks to manage key performance factors, including coverage,
capacity and peak network speed. Continue Reading

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About Inside Towers

Inside Towers is written for the wireless tower industry. There is plenty of news and information for wireless, but there is very little news targeted to towers specifically. There is no other available source of daily tower news and information written for the tower owners, managers, and supporting businesses.